Deck 3: Doing Anthropology 

Question 1

Which of the following statements about techniques used in dating fossil remains is NOT true?

A) Electron spin resonance is used to date rocks and minerals between 1,000 and 1,000,000 years old.
B) Carbon-14 techniques are used to date organic material.
C) Potassium-argon dating is most accurate on specimens over 500,000 years old.
D) Carbon-14 dating is most accurate on specimens more than 70,000 years old.
E) The potassium-argon technique is used to date inorganic substances such as rock.

Answer 1

Carbon-14 dating is most accurate on specimens more than 70,000 years old.

Question 2

The principle of superposition states that in an undisturbed sequence of strata,

A) the oldest layer is on the top.
B) the oldest layer is on the bottom.
C) the oldest layer is the shallowest in the sequence.
D) the youngest layer is the least disturbed by environmental changes such as erosion.
E) the stratigraphic techniques are useful only if the soils have a high content of sandstone.

Answer 2

the oldest layer is on the bottom.

Question 3

Which of the following is NOT one of the fields of study mentioned in the chapter as part of the multidisciplinary approaches used in biological anthropology and archaeology?

A) genetics
B) paleontology
C) palynology
D) metaphysics
E) remote sensing

Answer 3

metaphysics

Question 4

Molecular anthropology

A) uses genetic analysis of a DNA sequence to assess evolutionary links.
B) is the specialty of the most important member of an archaeological excavation project.
C) studies early hominins through fossil remains.
D) uses microscopic phytolithic analysis to study molecular evolution.
E) uses archaeological survey techniques to gather its data.

Question 5

What are both carbon-14 and potassium-argon dating techniques based on?

A) reversals of magnetic fields
B) relative as opposed to absolute dating
C) stratigraphic associations
D) accumulations of mineral salts
E) radioactive decay

Question 6

Systematic survey and excavation

A) are the two major components of fieldwork in molecular anthropology.
B) yield better results when the study team is small.
C) are the two major components of fieldwork in archaeology and paleoanthropology.
D) are techniques of the past that have been replaced by remote sensing and digital photography.
E) are techniques that have been discouraged because they lead to negative environmental impacts.

Question 7

What term refers to the study of the processes that affect the remains of dead animals?

A) necrology
B) taphonomy
C) degradation
D) osteology
E) autopsy

Question 8

Which of the following is NOT one of the kinds of archaeology discussed in this chapter?

A) historic archaeology
B) classical archaeology
C) linguistic archaeology
D) colonial archaeology
E) underwater archaeology

Question 9

The utility of stratigraphy for dating purposes is based on the fact that

A) soil strata are uncluttered by bones, stones, and artifacts.
B) once in the soil, there are very few things that can damage or disturb bones.
C) all environmental forces leave behind the same kind of soil deposit.
D) the depth and order of undisturbed soil strata reflect the age of their deposition.
E) higher strata are usually older than lower strata in undisturbed soil.

Question 10

In an example of how microscopic evidence in studying the past can yield surprising results that may overturn long-held assumptions, Williamson's analysis of microscopic residues stuck to the edges of cutting tools found at a cave site in South Africa revealed that

A) 30 percent of the residues were from human flesh, suggesting cannibalism.
B) 50 percent of the residues were from plants, contradicting the prevailing assumption that such tools were used mainly to hunt and butcher animals.
C) all of the residues were from butchered animals, but most of the butchering had been performed by women and not by men.
D) 30 percent of the residues were from plants, suggesting a slow transition from vegetarian to carnivorous diets.
E) 50 percent of the residues were from domesticated plants, pushing back the date of plant domestication from 10,000 to 40,000 years ago.

Question 11

Under what conditions are fossils most likely to form?

A) areas covered by volcanic ash
B) geologically inactive regions
C) acidic soils
D) maritime environments
E) regions with lots of scavengers

Question 12

The so-called Piltdown man was once considered an unusual and perplexing human ancestor, but it turned out to be the jaw of a young orangutan attached to a Homo sapiens skull. What dating technique exposed the Piltdown fraud?

A) carbon-14
B) fluorine absorption analysis
C) thermoluminescence
D) potassium-argon
E) electron spin resonance

Question 13

The specialist among a team of scientists at an excavation site who focuses on the study of ancient plants through pollen samples taken from the site is most likely a

A) phytologist.
B) palynologist.
C) paleontologist.
D) paleopathologist.
E) pollenologist.

Question 14

Which of the following statements about paleoanthropologists is FALSE?

A) They often work in another country (in the case of U.S. paleoanthropologists) and are required by the American Anthropological Association's Code of Ethics to establish truly collaborative relations with colleagues in that country.
B) They often work in a team with archaeologists.
C) They study human evolution through the fossil record.
D) They do not have to worry about ethical and legal concerns, because they are dealing with the remains of dead humans.
E) They try to infer the relation between the physical and cultural features of the remains they are examining.

Question 15

Which excavation technique provides more information about the context of the artifacts, fossils, or features discovered?

A) digging through the strata one layer at a time
B) screening and floating
C) excavating multiple test pits
D) removing the soil in consistent amounts
E) surface collection and mapping

Question 16

Radiometric dating techniques available to anthropologists

A) have caused a reevaluation of the fossil record since their 1991 development.
B) work only for nonhuman primates, because the genus Homo had culture.
C) do not work well for hominin fossils, because such fossils are too young for the effective range of the techniques.
D) can only be used to date inorganic materials that are more than 1 million years old.
E) establish a probable date for fossils by calculating radioactive decay in the specimen found or the rocks surrounding it.

Question 17

Data collected using systematic surveys do NOT typically address which of the following questions?

A) How big are the sites in a given region?
B) How old are the sites?
C) Where are the archaeological sites located?
D) What is the relative chronology of the layers exposed during excavation?
E) What kinds of buildings existed in a given region?

Question 18

Advances in technology enable archaeologists to gather evidence that is not visible to the naked eye. One example of such microscopic evidence is the study of

A) microstratigraphic layers.
B) starch grains that solidify into crystals and therefore do not decay.
C) phytoliths, microscopic crystals found in many plants that are inorganic and do not decay, which means that they can reveal which plants were present at a given site even when no other plant remains survive.
D) phytoliths, microscopic organic remains of common early plant domesticates.
E) microanthropometric remains.

Question 19

Paleopathology is the study of

A) disease and injury in skeletons from archaeological sites.
B) ancient environments using samples of ancient pollen.
C) hominin evolution and human life as revealed by the fossil record.
D) the biological and geological processes by which dead animals become fossils.
E) the evolution of linguistic communication through ancient speech sounds and texts.

Question 20

Which of the following researchers is LEAST likely to be part of a paleoanthropological research team?

A) palynologist
B) psychotherapist
C) paleoecologist
D) chemist
E) geologist

Question 21

What kind of dating technique is fluorine absorption analysis?

A) radiometric
B) radioactive
C) relative
D) chronologic
E) absolute

Question 22

The American Anthropological Association's Code of Ethics is applicable only to research being conducted in the United States.

Question 23

Archaeological anthropologists excavate sites to gain a better understanding of the regional patterning of the molecular record.

Question 24

The American Anthropological Association's Code of Ethics

A) is the result of a UN resolution designed to ensure that human rights are respected in the field of U.S. anthropology.
B) is applicable only to research being conducted in the United States.
C) is too broad for most anthropologists to find it useful.
D) applies differently to the different types of anthropology.
E) is designed to ensure that all anthropologists are aware of their obligations to the field of anthropology, the host communities that allow them to conduct their research, and society in general.

Question 25

Historical archaeologists use written records to supplement the archaeological record.

Question 26

Systematic survey refers to the archaeological technique of systematically digging through the cultural and natural stratigraphy of an archaeological site.

Question 27

Palynology is the study of ancient animals through fossil remains.

Question 28

Experimental archaeologists try to replicate ancient techniques under controlled conditions.

Question 29

Informed consent refers to

A) people's agreement to take part in research after they have been fully informed about its purpose, nature, funding, procedures, and potential impact on them.
B) U.S. anthropologists' signed commitment to the American Anthropological Association that they will abide by the organization's laws and regulations.
C) a coercive agreement between anthropologists and study participants that characterized much of the dubious and unethical research practices of the past.
D) a signed contract between anthropologists and their academic institutions regarding the potential monetary value of the data they will collect in the field and how they will safeguard that data.
E) a host country's leaders' agreement that the specified research is to be carried out.

Question 30

Molecular anthropology studies evolutionary links using genetic analysis.

Question 31

Anthropometry is the study of human culture using satellite imagery.

Question 32

Biological anthropology and archaeology both involve multidisciplinary approaches to research.

Question 33

The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) gives ownership of Native American remains to living Native Americans. Under this act,

A) any contemporary Native American tribe is considered to be culturally affiliated with all Native American remains or artifacts.
B) museums must destroy any remains they do not repatriate to living Native Americans.
C) DNA analysis of all human skeletal remains is prohibited.
D) museums must return all materials to Native American tribes and are not allowed to keep any Native American skeletal remains.
E) museums are required to return remains and artifacts to any tribe that requests them and can prove a "cultural affiliation" to the remains.

Question 34

The most reliable evidence in studying the past is that which is visible to the naked eye. Anything microscopic is too small to be considered reliable.

Question 35

Anthropologists who study the past do not have to worry so much about ethical concerns, since their studies do not involve living people.

Question 36

Which absolute dating technique is used to date volcanic rock?

A) electron spin resonance
B) carbon-14
C) fluorine absorption analysis
D) potassium-argon
E) thermoluminescence

Question 37

Informed consent refers to people's agreement to take part in research after they have been fully informed about its purpose, nature, funding, procedures, and potential impact on them.

Question 38

The legal and scientific debates that arose after the discovery in 1996 of a skeleton dubbed Kennewick Man illustrates all of the following EXCEPT

A) the often-complicated ethical implications of unearthing human remains and attempting to reconstruct their physical and cultural identities.
B) the ineffectiveness of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, which has no real legal or political recognition.
C) that sometimes questions of ownership of and access to physical and archaeological remains place anthropologists and indigenous people in opposing camps.
D) that scientific knowledge is not politically or culturally neutral.
E) the fact that not everyone appreciates anthropology all the time.

Question 39

Paleopathology is the study of disease and injury in skeletons.

Question 40

Remote sensing refers to carrying out excavations in distant locations.

Question 41

All of the following are characteristic field techniques of the ethnographer EXCEPT

A) longitudinal analysis of data sets gathered from state-sponsored statistical agencies.
B) problem-oriented research.
C) in-depth interviewing, often leading to the collection of life histories.
D) detailed work with key consultants.
E) direct, firsthand observation of behavior, including participant observation.

Question 42

Reflecting today's world, in which people, images, and information move about as never before, fieldwork must be more flexible and done on a larger scale. The result of such fieldwork is often an ethnography that

A) is more traditional, negating anthropologists' concerns about defending their field's roots.
B) becomes less useful and valuable to understanding culture.
C) is increasingly multisited and multitimed, integrating analyses of external organizations and forces to understand local phenomena.
D) requires researchers to stay at the same site for more than three years.
E) challenges anthropologists concerned with salvaging isolated and untouched cultures around the world.

Question 43

Traditional ethnographic research focused on the single community or culture, which was treated as more or less isolated and unique in time and space; however,

A) this is no longer true, nor has it ever really been true, a fact that renders classic ethnographies historical curiosities and not serious academic works.
B) all such single communities have already been studied, so anthropologists have very limited project choices.
C) there has been a shift within the discipline against the concept of culture and toward the individual as the only true, reliable unit of analysis.
D) the American Anthropological Association still requires its members to strive toward research focused on one single community.
E) there has been a shift within the discipline toward recognition of ongoing and inescapable flows of people, technology, images, and information.

Question 44

The research technique that uses diagrams and symbols to record kin connections is called

A) kin-based interviewing.
B) DNA testing.
C) genealogical participant observation.
D) the genealogical method.
E) interpretive anthropology.

Question 45

In the field, ethnographers strive to establish rapport: a good, friendly working relationship, based on personal contact,

A) that is necessary in conducting any valuable research in the social sciences, not just anthropology.
B) as well as on payment, based on local standards, for people's time spent with the researcher.
C) that if done properly ensures the ethnographer's ability to conduct detached, unbiased research.
D) achieved in large part by engaging in participant observation.
E) and if that fails, the next option is to pay people so they will talk about their culture.

Question 46

Which of the following is NOT a characteristic field technique of the ethnographer?

A) working with informants
B) structured interviewing
C) random sampling
D) the genealogical method
E) life histories

Question 47

Classical archaeologists focus on archaeological sites that are threatened by development.

Question 48

Which of the following is NOT an example of participant observation?

A) buying a shroud for a village ancestor
B) helping out at harvest time
C) administering interviews according to an interview schedule over the phone
D) engaging in informal chit-chat
E) dancing at a ceremony

Question 49

An anthropologist has just arrived at a new field site and feels overwhelmed with a creepy, profound feeling of alienation, of being without some of the most ordinary, trivial (and therefore basic) cues of his culture of origin. What term best describes what he is experiencing?

A) agency paralysis
B) synchrony
C) configurationalism
D) culture shock
E) diachrony

Question 50

NAGPRA dictates the ownership of physical and archaeological remains and sometimes places anthropologists and indigenous peoples at odds with one another.

Question 51

In survey research, what is sampling?

A) a form of participant observation
B) a collection reflecting the emic perspective
C) the collection of a study group from a larger population
D) the interviewing of a small number of key cultural consultants
E) the collection of life histories of every member in a community

Question 52

Electron spin resonance is used to date organic material from archaeological sites.

Question 53

Absolute dating uses stratigraphy to establish a time frame in relation to other strata.

Question 54

Colonial archaeologists study pre-Columbian cultures of the Americas.

Question 55

What is the term for an expert on a particular aspect of native life?

A) biased informant
B) etic informant
C) representative sample
D) life-history approach specialist
E) key cultural consultant

Question 56

What did Bronislaw Malinowski mean when he referred to everyday cultural patterns as "the imponderabilia of native life and of typical behavior"?

A) Everyday cultural patterns are full of senseless cultural "noise," and it is the anthropologist's job to get at the truly valuable behaviors that distinguish one culture from another.
B) Everyday cultural patterns are important but so numerous that their detailed description should not be included in the main body of an ethnographic study.
C) Everyday cultural patterns of native life can best be studied by asking key informants to explain them.
D) Features of culture such as distinctive smells, noises people make, how they cover their mouths when they eat, and how they gaze at each other are so fundamental that natives take them for granted but are there for the ethnographer to describe and make sense of.
E) Features of everyday culture are, at first, imponderable, but as the ethnographer builds rapport, their logic and functional value in society become clear.

Question 57

In survey research, a sample should

A) target only one social, cultural, or environmental factor that influences behavior.
B) include anyone who will be interviewed by the ethnographer.
C) be invariant.
D) include the entire population in question.
E) be constituted to allow inferences about the larger population.

Question 58

Which of the following research methods is a distinctive strategy within anthropology?

A) working with skilled respondents
B) the biological perspective
C) the evolutionary perspective
D) its practice of cross-cultural comparison
E) ethnography

Question 59

Ethnographers typically combine emic and etic research strategies in their fieldwork. This means they are interested in applying both

A) reflexive and salvage approaches.
B) local- and scientist-oriented research approaches.
C) genealogical and survey methods.
D) local and bifocal research approaches.
E) personal and impersonal research approaches.

Question 60

Taphonomy is the science that examines the ways in which sediments accumulate in layers.

Question 61

Traditionally, ethnographers have tried to understand the whole of a particular culture.

Question 62

Because there are so many anthropologists in the United States, the distinction between emic and etic does not apply to American culture.

Question 63

Really good key cultural consultants will actually end up recording most of the data needed to write an ethnography.

Question 64

An agreement to take part in research after having the nature, procedures, and possible impacts of the research explained is known as

A) informed consent.
B) etic and emic protocols.
C) a research protocol briefing.
D) the do no harm directive.
E) implied consent.

Question 65

Despite the variety of research techniques the ethnographer may utilize in the field, in the best studies the hallmark of ethnography remains

A) entering the community and getting to know its people.
B) gathering large quantities of data on a limited budget.
C) defining the local culture in such a way as to highlight what makes the particular culture so unlike any other.
D) collaborating with the community to construct a cohesive image of local culture.
E) providing detailed descriptions of "the imponderabilia of native life and of typical behavior."

Question 66

The etic perspective refers to a nonscientific perspective.

Question 67

Despite the increasing popularity of team research among anthropologists, the best ethnographies are always the product of individual work.

Question 68

The American Anthropological Association Code of Ethics prohibits anthropologists from working with governments on matters of national security.

Question 69

In survey research, what term is used to refer to the attributes that vary among the members of a population?

A) questionnaires
B) interviews
C) unknowns
D) random samples
E) variables

Question 70

When an ethnographer uses an interview schedule to gather information from the field, the researcher's capacity to ask and answer truly relevant questions is inevitably limited.

Question 71

The Human Terrain System has sought to embed anthropologists and other social scientists within military teams in Iraq and Afghanistan. Which of the following is NOT a reason anthropologists and the AAA Executive Board object to the use of anthropologists in the military?

A) The Human Terrain System conflicts with the ethical responsibility of anthropologists to disclose who they are.
B) Anthropologists in war zones have an ethical dilemma where their responsibilities to their military units may conflict with their obligations to the local people they study.
C) Anthropologists may not be able to identify themselves as anthropologists, distinct from military personnel.
D) Anthropologists, by the nature of their discipline, are not permitted to interact with any military personnel.
E) It is difficult to give informed consent in an active war zone without feeling coerced, thereby compromising "voluntary informed consent" in the AAA Code of Ethics.

Question 72

Ethnography is increasingly multitimed and multisited, the result of a shift toward a recognition of the ongoing and inescapable flows of people, technology, images, and information that characterizes much of the world today.

Question 73

Longitudinal research is the long-term study of a community, region, society, culture, or other unit, usually based on repeated visits.

Question 74

The characteristic field techniques of the ethnographer are participant observation, the genealogical method, and in-depth interviewing.

Question 75

Survey research is usually conducted through intensive personal contact with the study subjects.

Question 76

Given the realities of the contemporary world, anthropologists need to apply methods that protect their analyses from biases caused by external forces.

Question 77

The emic perspective focuses on local explanations of criteria and significance.

Question 78

Survey research studies a small sample of a larger population.